Lanfear, Ambrose, Jr.

Ambrose Lanfear, Jr. (1787-1870) was the son of Ambrose Lanfear, Sr. (d. 1809) from his first marriage (the latter’s marriage to Elizabeth Hays was his third marriage). The younger Lanfear married his cousin, Mary Hills (1792-1832), on 28 September 1826 at Islington (possibly his second marriage, but not yet confirmed). He had already visited New York (he appears in a letter by Eliza Fenwick to Mary Hays in 1824 when Fenwick was living in Newhaven, Connecticut). Ambrose Lanfear took his wife to America in 1828 (see Eliza Fenwick to Mary Hays, 15 April 1828); she died in New York City in September 1832, about eight months after the birth of Emily Francis Lanfear, Elizabeth Lanfear’s granddaughter, who married Gordon Norrie (1830-1909) and died in New York City in 1917. At some point after this date, Ambrose Lanfear removed to New Orleans, eventually forming a successful business there. Ambrose Lanfear is joined on the subscription list by many members of his family, most of them having primary residences in Berkshire.Members of the Lanfear family first appear in Crabb Robinson’s diary in 1812. Shortly after the wedding of George Wedd (1785-1854) and Sarah Dunkin (1793-1875) (Elizabeth’s niece),Robinson attended a dinner party in the home of the newly-weds. Robinson was accompanied by two friends, Mordecai Andrews III (1781-1821), a nephew of John Towill Rutt, and Mordecai’s sister, Eliza Julia (1792-1861), who would later emigrate to Illinois and marry Benjamin Flower’s nephew, George Flower. Robinson writes on September 5:

At 4 Mord: And[rews]: drove me in a gig to Geo. Wedd’s with whom I dined his bride looked exceedingly well And Harriet Wedd his Sister very pretty. Miss Hill[s], the other bride maid a very agreeable girl. There were besidesMrHill[s] a nephew of Miss Hayes &MrLanfere the Son in Law of Miss H. I was not much pleased with either; H. is a coarse man in language & manrsbut is good humoured . . . L. has more stuff in him. He has travelled And Miss H. speaks of him very highly for his exemplary conduct to his Mother in law [Elizabeth Lanfear] in very trying Situations; but he is forward & makes pretensions beyond what he is entitled to – It was a day of effort. I resolved to amuse myself & others And I believe I succeeded. Andrews drove me ^& his Sister^ home late – (Whelan, “Mary Hays,” 179; Crabb RobinsonDiary,vol. 2, f. 131)